WONDER WOMAN SIGHTING IN CAPE BRETON
Comic with scene set in highlands in high demand
Wanna get your hands on a fresh copy of the latest Justice League Rebirth comic in Sydney? You’re out of luck, for now.
Local stores say issue No. 29 sold out quickly after readers realized the most recent story follows Wonder Woman as she visits the highlands of Cape Breton to investigate a mysterious communication from outer space.
Ed Mah, owner of The Local NPC Games & Comics on Charlotte Street, said he stocked 15 copies of the comic last week and the last one sold on Thursday.
And he’s still getting calls or customers coming into the store looking for the DC Comics issue.
“It has really nice art,” Mah said. “I don’t myself follow Justice League, so I don’t know too much about the story, but it was really well drawn.”
No one in the comic book business knew the issue would contain a local reference, so everyone was taken by surprise, including readers.
However, Mah said, something similar has happened before.
“It’s not the first time DC has done it,” he said. “There was a comic, like two years ago, that showed a lobster boat and it said ‘Off the coast of Nova Scotia.’ I’m not sure what number it was, but I know that it was Superman Unchained.”
Mah said the Justice League Rebirth series is fairly popular and may be getting more attention now
that a new Justice League movie is set to hit theatres later this year.
Jeff and Danielle Gusso, owners of My Secret Identity Comics and Games on Keltic Drive in Sydney River, said it only took 24 hours for their store to sell out 10 copies of JL#29, which just arrived on Wednesday.
There’s nothing on the cover to indicate the Cape Breton connection inside.
Owners at both stores said it takes about two weeks to receive a new order from the distributor, so both are calling other stores to see if they can get unsold stock sent to Sydney.
“Until the comic came in, there was no indication, which is why we’re now trying to snap up extra copies,” said Jeff.
“This was a complete surprise, because the big thing that’s happening right now is (the) Dark Knights Metal (series), which is these ones right here. They’re all super-glossy covers.”
The Gussos didn’t set aside a copy of JL#29 for themselves, but they still have one that a customer preordered and hasn’t yet picked up.
The store would have stocked more of the Justice League comics if the couple had known there was a local connection, said Danielle. Instead, they loaded up on the more popular Metal series.
“That’s what everybody wants, so we’ve got lots of those, but not lots of Justice League,” she said.
“This is just one of those things, out of the blue and random.
“People that aren’t regular customers, they’ll just walk in, buy their comic and leave. There’s not really a lot of conversation, typically, so we kept watching this one walk out and we didn’t really know what’s going on.
“Of course, yesterday morning I’m like ’Ah!’ Jeff figured it out. The highlands are in it.”
My Secret Identity has started taking orders for the sold-out issue, and already five customers have asked for a total of nine copies. Danielle said next week’s order is already being shipped from the North American distributor in the U.S., but extra copies of JL#29 should be in store the following Wednesday.
And there’s always hope that stores elsewhere aren’t selling out as quickly.
“As long as people are patient, I’m sure that we can get everybody a copy,” she said.